#Yes jc they have everything already. Lotus pier it's their sect... WHAT A-NING IS THERE? MY A-NING?

[add1ctedt0you]

Me, with the unpopular opinion that, in a wq lives au, where wq marries jc, novel canon wwx is not taking well the news about chengqing marriage

[thejhambs]

Just how much did we the Jiang Sect give you? I’m supposed to be his son, I’m supposed to be the heir of the YunmengJiang Sect, yet all these years I’ve been outdone by you at every single thing. You paid for your bringing-up with life! The lives of my dad, my mom, my sister, and Jin ZiXuan! Because of you, all that’s left is a parentless Jin Ling! Wei WuXian, who was the one who broke his promise and betrayed the Jiang Sect first? Tell me. That I’d be the sect leader and you’d be my subordinate, that you’d help me your whole life, that so long as the GusuLan Sect had its Two Jades, the YunmengJiang Sect would have its Two Prides, that you’d never betray me or betray the Jiang Sect—who was the one that said these?! I’m asking you—who was the one that said all these?! Did you eat all your fucking words?!

Chapter 102, EXR

"The lives of my dad, my mom, my sister" - JC's mother and father were killed by the Wens, who WWX had warned the Jiangs to defend against, and they refused to listen to him. JYL was shot by a random cultivator from an army which Jiang Cheng had decided to be part of.

Suddenly, Jiang YanLi’s eyes opened wide. Her hands conjured up an explosive current of strength from nowhere and pushed Wei WuXian hard! Wei WuXian was pushed onto the ground again by the force. The next time he looked up, he saw the gleaming blade of a sword pierce through her throat. The boy holding the sword was the young cultivator who cried over the disciple who had shot the arrow. He was still crying, eyes covered in tears, “You thief! This is for my brother!” Sitting on the dirty ground, Wei WuXian stared with disbelief at Jiang YanLi, whose head had already dipped, blood trickling ceaselessly from her neck. Jiang Cheng was at a loss as well, arms still wrapped around his sister’s body. He hadn’t completely realized what happened yet

Chapter 78, EXR

"I'm supposed to be the heir of the YMJ sect, yet all these years, I've been outdone by you at everything" - As I said, poor little rich boy upset that his servant was better than him at everything. The source is enough here

"Wei WuXian, who was the one who broke his promise and betrayed the Jiang Sect first" - It was JC who told WWX that he's not welcome at Lotus Pier, and gave him an ultimatum which involved either leaving the sect or killing the people who JC knew had saved his life, and brought back his parent's bodies

Wei WuXian replied in a relaxed tone, “Yunmeng is so close to Yiling. I’ll sneak back whenever I feel like it.” Jiang Cheng snorted, “You wish.”

Wei WuXian, “You said it already. I wouldn’t be in the right even if I am. What else could I do except for jailing myself here?” Jiang Cheng, “What else? Of course there’s something.” With Sandu, he pointed at Wen Ning who lay on the ground, “The only way of making up for things is for us to end things before they get the chance to!” Wei WuXian, “End what?” Jiang Cheng, “You burn this corpse right now and return to them all these leftovers of the Wen Sect. That’s the only way to make the subject die!” As he spoke, he raised his sword again, preparing to attack. However, Wei WuXian clenched his wrist, “Are you joking?! If we return Wen Qing and the others to them, they’d meet nothing but a dead end!” Jiang Cheng, “I doubt you’ll even return all of them. Why do you care what kind of end they meet? A dead end it is, then—what does it have to do with you?!”

Wei WuXian finally lost his temper, “Jiang Cheng! What- What do you think you’re talking about?! Take it back��don’t make me give you a thrashing! Don’t forget. Who was the one that helped us burn Uncle Jiang’s and Madam Yu’s corpses? Who returned to us the ashes that are in Lotus Pier right now? And who took us in when we were chased after by Wen Chao?!” Jiang Cheng, “I’m the one who fucking wants to give you a thrashing! Yes, they helped us before, but why in the world don’t you understand that right now any remnant of the Wen Sect is a target of criticism! No matter who they are, with a surname of Wen they have committed a most heinous crime! And those who protect the Wen are at risk of being condemned by everyone! All the people loathe the Wen-dogs so badly that the worse they die the better. Whoever protects them is against the entire world. Nobody would speak for them, and nobody would speak for you either!”

He drove WWX away himself, and is angry about WWX "betraying" him, lol. Can't take responsibility for his own actions

imagine thinking jiang cheng is pathetic as though he isn’t one of the strongest characters both emotionally and physically. he is the most successful man in the story persevering through tragedy after tragedy and being resilient enough to overcome his damage.

[plan-d-to-i]

i never understood why ppl excuse jc’s inaction with the wens and everything that came after on “miscommunication”. Like what is there to miscommunicate? It doesn’t take a genius much less a sect leader to look at the situation and think “oh this isn’t gonna go well”. jc knew more than anyone the situation golden core reveal or not. He knew wn and wq saved him and wwx and knew the wen remnants were a bunch of old ppl and a child. Where is the miscommunication🤨? wwx did not have to go around announcing that ppl were against him like it’s so clear to even non cultivators. jc stans love to do mental gymnastics to avoid admitting the fact that jc is just a selfish and spineless asshole. sorry this is kinda long but i just wanted to rant 😅

haha rant away xx

On one hand jc is a political mastermind clan leader with an uncanny ability to read the room 🌝, on the other hand he can't figure out that isolating WWX, leaving him no recourse to protect the Wens other than defecting and taking the entire burden on his shoulders, staging a violent duel with him to cut all ties and calling him the enemy of the entire cultivation world would be detrimental to his safety k. The only people inane enough to believe these kinds of arguments are ... other jc stans...

"Why do you care what kind of end they meet? A dead end it is, then—what does it have to do with you?!”

Wei WuXian finally lost his temper, “Jiang Cheng! What- What do you think you’re talking about?! Take it back—don’t make me give you a thrashing! Don’t forget. Who was the one that helped us burn Uncle Jiang’s and Madam Yu’s corpses? Who returned to us the ashes that are in Lotus Pier right now? And who took us in when we were chased after by Wen Chao?!”

Jiang Cheng, “I’m the one who fucking wants to give you a thrashing! Yes, they helped us before, but why in the world don’t you understand that right now any remnant of the Wen Sect is a target of criticism!

there you have it. jc in a nutshell: They helped us, but there's nothing in it for me if I help them right now.

His "if you protect them I won't protect you" isn't a statement on ,ability it's a threat. It's not that jc can't protect him, ppl don't seem to get it. YunmengJiang Clan is fine at this point. LOTUS PIER NEVER HAD TO BE REBUILT BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BURNED DOWN. The Cloud Recesses were burned down. jc just doesn't intend to admit to the cultivation world he's only alive and kicking thanks to some Wens and he's pissed off WWX is not obeying him and making him look bad by doing the difficult, morally correct thing. He's already been stewing that WWX got credit for his immense show of force during the war. This happens all the time where instead of a talented servant, soldier, general etc being rewarded for their talent the dude in power sees them as a threat to his position/rep and nerfs them (or yk ...kills them).

Honestly ppl will really b like : "Wen Ning best boy 🥺 and then defend this:

Jiang Cheng exploded, “Just what are you being so stubborn about? If you can’t do it then move over—I’ll do it!”

Wei WuXian gripped him even tighter, his fingers as tight as iron, “Jiang WanYin!”

WWX made it perfectly clear why he was defecting. To fully protect the reputation of YunmengJiang. jc understood. There's absolutely no miscommunication:

Wei WuXian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei WuXian does, it’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect.”

Jiang Cheng, “… All for the Wen Sect…? Wei WuXian, do you have a savior complex? Is it that you’ll die if you don’t stand up for someone and stir up some trouble?”

Wei WuXian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the YunmengJiang Sect in the future.”

As for "oh wwx should've just told him about the core transfer and thrown that in his face that would've totally changed jc's attitude 🥺". First of all we see jc's attitude when the core is revealed. Was it helpful ?! LMAO. Jc is incapable of understanding true altruism and principles. In his mind everything honorable & heroic WWX does from helping in the Xuanwu cave to helping the Wens, to giving him his core it's bc he's showing off what a hero he is.

“Wei WuXian, you’re such a great, selfless person. You did the best things possible, and you swallowed all the suffering and didn’t let anyone know. What a touching story. I should kneel down and cry in gratitude, shouldn’t I?”

Secondly jc already knew he only back his core thanks to WWX. It's not like he found Baoshan Sanren by himself and told her he was YZY's son 🌝 Just like he knew he only survived and got back his parents's bodies thanks to WN & WQ. He just doesn't care. Ppl are out there trying to reinvent logic to excuse jc's behavior instead of just accepting the simple, obvious fact that he's just "a selfish and spineless asshole", as you so aptly put it 💯.

[vrishchikawrites]

Are you still taking prompts?

Cause if so, I'd love to see a time travel fic where post-canon WWX and LWJ get yeeted back into their younger bodies, and land just before the GC transfer. And Post-Canon WWX - who's had some years of being a part of a loving, supportive family, in a non-toxic, non-abusive environment; and therefore no longer has any misconceptions about how much the Jiangs were not his family - takes one look at JC lying there on the table in the cave after WQ knocked him out (and is now in the middle of prepping for surgery); and just goes, "LOL, yeah; nope.😆 Been there, done that; 10/10, would not recommend.😝 Hey, WQ - change of plans!😎"

(Except, you know, not written like crack. 😉)

Not necessary to include, but a fun idea:

JC gets dragged along to the past as well because he has WWX's GC; so whatever sent them back mistook him for part of WWX and brought him along.

So when he wakes up from the anaesthesia, he freaks out about not having a GC anymore. And WWX has this whole story ready to tell young JC about how, "Oops, sorry; you can't have a new GC after all" - but this is Post-Canon JC; so he knows about the transfer, and knows that this means that WWX decided not to do it again.

Which means he ends up screaming at WWX about, "How dare you not give me your GC!"

So WWX feels exactly zero sympathy.

(Before that happened he was maybe feeling a little bit bad for young JC; because that JC hadn't done anything too bad yet - but he already knew how it would turn out if he went through with it. And he was not giving up his chance to cultivate to immortality with his hubby; just so that JC could Feel Like A Real Man, and go on to murder his way through life again.)

What would be really, really great about this, is if WWX had brought JC to Qinghe or Gusu; or somewhere the other cultivation sects involved in the SSC had gathered, before JC woke up. Planning to leave him there where he would be safe. So when JC wakes up and starts screaming, everybody hears him.

And they're all like, "...WUT."🤤

"You expected him to do what?!?"😲😨😱

So instead of all the sympathy and compassion, etc, that he would have gotten over what happened at LP (that he probably did get the first time), or for losing his GC; basically the entire allied cultivation world as a whole is collectively side-eyeing him.

IDK; I just think it would be really funny.

But mainly, I just want to see WWX a few years post-canon; having the chance to do it all again, and choosing not to go through with the GC transfer. LWJ going with him is because the thought of post-canon LWJ losing his WWX makes me sad; and I want them to stay together. 😋

Post-Canon JC going back and getting stuck with the coreless body he deserved is just for my own catharsis.

(The rest of that idea is simply for the lulz.) 😉

(I decided not to include JC traveling back in time. Hope this works and satisfies you!)

“No, I don’t.” Wei Wuxian sees Wen Qing blink and stare at him while Wen Ning stills in the process of making Jiang Cheng comfortable.

“What?” Wen Qing asks but rethinks it immediately, “No, no need to answer that.” She starts packing away her instruments immediately like she’s glad that Wei Wuxian has changed his mind. He looks at her and feels aching fondness rise in his chest. She must be frustrated that he made her go through all of that trouble and yet she still chooses to move before he can change his mind again.

“What… are we going to tell Jiang-gongzi?” Wen Ning asks tentatively but Wei Wuxian notes the faint look of relief in the boy’s eyes.

“We’ll tell him the treatment wasn't possible,” He says, glancing at his… former shidi. It isn’t an easy decision to make, because he knows Jiang Cheng would suffer for it. A part of him feels like he’s being unnecessarily cruel by denying Jiang Cheng his core.

But he has already paid his debt and it cost countless people their lives. Jiang Cheng’s actions didn’t just lead to the death of the Wens. Lan Zhan had told him about the numerous ‘demonic cultivators’ Jiang Cheng had pursued relentlessly. Even his love wasn’t certain how many people died or were tormented to insanity because of Jiang Cheng’s persistence.

While Wei Wuxian doesn’t intend to let the situation get so out of hand, it is apparent that Jiang Cheng can’t be trusted with power.

He is worried about how Jiang Cheng would react. Wei Wuxian had promised him a core, after all. But whatever happens, a powerless Jiang Cheng is safer for everyone.

“We’ll tell him that rebuilding the core is impossible because Wen Zhuliu destroyed his meridians as well.”

“He has,” Wen Qing points out, “I was about to repair them.”

Wei Wuxian frowns, “And can you repair them still? Without transferring the core?” That would certainly help Jiang Cheng heal faster and accept some spiritual energy transfusions. Wen Qing looks at Jiang Cheng with a frown and nods.

“Wei-gongzi… what changed your mind?” Wen Ning asks as Wen Qing goes to work immediately. Wei Wuxian knows that if he has to help the Wens, he needs to tell them the truth. While Wen Ning would trust him and accept his explanation without too many questions, Wen Qing wouldn’t be so easy.

Wei Wuxian takes a deep breath and closes his eyes, getting his thoughts in order. When he opens them again, both of the Wens are looking at him with frowns.

He grins wryly and spreads his hands, "I have a tale for you, my dear friends."

-

Jin Guangyao needed to have his last 'hurrah'. He just couldn't leave them be, even as he died. Whatever he did, whatever tool he used, it sent a shockwave of Resentful Energy that would've killed them all.

As always, Wei Wuxian stepped forward to protect people. As always, Lan Wangji stepped forward to protect him.

Wei Wuxian gritted his teeth and changed his plan at the last moment. At first, he wanted to absorb the energy and channel it somewhere else. But with so many people just lingering instead of running, he needed a different solution.

His mind flashed, he saw Jiang Cheng, and decided.

A forbidden array formed.

-

"I needed something that would use up all of the Resentful Energy and protect everyone, including Lan Zhan."

"So, at the last moment and on the verge of dying, you chose something as improbable as time travel." Wen Qing deadpans. Wen Ning is looking at him with wide eyes. Strangely enough, both look like they believe him. Well, he did mention a few things, personal incidents, that he had no way of knowing if the Wens hadn't told him.

Still.

"I'm not the one for regrets," He says softly as he looks at Jiang Cheng, "But I thought that array was the safest solution. It doesn't harm the current timeline so everyone is safe. Lan Zhan, I know, wouldn't mind following my lead in this." He did regret taking Zewu-jun's brother away from him after such a traumatic event but there really was no other option. Not with Jin Ling so close and so many innocent people in the vicinity.

Wei Wuxian is quite certain that the blast would've destroyed everything around them, including the innocent people around the Guanyin Temple complex.

The siblings exchange glances before Wen Qing returns to Jiang Cheng's side, preparing to work on his meridians, "You're going to change things." She observes, "Save people?"

"Save you and Wen Ning. Save Jiang Yanli. Save innocents, yes."

Wen Qing freezes.

---

Lan Wangji doesn't know what Wei Ying did but he trusts his beloved. When he finds himself in the past, just before the Sunshot Campaign begins and shortly after the fall of the Lotus Pier, he doesn't hesitate.

He knows that his brother is safe and his uncle is managing things at Cloud Recesses. But he also knows that somewhere out there, his beloved is preparing himself for a risky, painful procedure.

Wangji can't let that happen. He thinks back on everything Wen Ning shared with him about the incident, particularly the location of where it occurred. He's probably too late to stop the transfer but perhaps not late enough to stop the Wens from finding Wei Ying.

It takes him days to reach Yiling without the aid of Bichen but he manages and immediately heads towards the approximate location Wen Ning had mentioned.

"Wei Ying," He breathes softly when he spots his beloved shopping for some supplies. He hadn't anticipated finding him so soon but is grateful nonetheless.

Wei Ying is dressed like a peasant and blends in well with the people around him but Wangji can recognize him anywhere.

Dressed discreetly and without his forehead ribbon, Wangji too is inconspicuous. He moves swiftly towards Wei Ying and catches his elbow, eyeing the people in red and white uniform at the far end of the street warily.

"Come." He whispers.

Wei Ying doesn't say a word, just paying the vendor and following Wangji into a more discreet location.

Wangji looks at his beloved's face, drinking in his bright silver eyes and sharp features with acute relief.

"Wei Ying, you… you look well." Strangely so, for someone who has just given up his Golden Core.

Hope stirs in his chest and Wangji reaches for Wei Ying's wrist.

His love's lips quirk in amusement, but Wangji ignores him, focusing on sending his spiritual energy through Wei Ying's meridians.

A strong core pulses in response.

"Wei Ying," Something bright and triumphant burns in his chest and he resists the urge to pull his beloved into a crushing embrace.

He would've supported Wei Ying's decision to give up his core and cultivate with resentful energy again. He knew it wasn't evil or harmful now.

But Wei Ying chose himself. His beloved had finally chosen to save himself.

"Aiya, Lan Zhan!" Wei Ying laughs, "If you keep looking at me like that, I'll do something quite shameless and embarra-"

Wangji kisses him.

He cups that precious face, pulls him close, and slides his lips over soft flesh in a tender expression of love he can't contain.

Wei Ying chose himself.

---

Jiang Cheng returns from his trip to the mountain with a thunderous expression on his face.

He disregards Lan Zhan and grabs Wei Wuxian's arm in a tough grip, dragging him away from the crowded tea house. Lan Zhan follows without a word, his expression frosty and eyes on Jiang Cheng.

"Your Grandmaster," He spits, "Is just as useless and worthless as you. All she could do is repair my meridians! My body was too damaged for anything else, she said!"

Wei Wuxian knows Wen Qing wrote the note they left by Jiang Cheng's side but he hadn't known what she had written.

It must've been reasonably convincing for Jiang Cheng to be convinced.

"That's-" He searches his mind to find words that would be appropriately sympathetic. Saying 'that's too bad' would be just rubbing salt on an open wound.

He may dislike Jiang Cheng, but some of the childhood affection still lingers. He doesn't wish to hurt his former shidi.

"I didn't know," He says finally, his heart throbbing in sympathy at Jiang Cheng's devastated expression. He briefly reconsiders his decision but Lan Zhan shifts discreetly by his side and Wei Wuxian remembers why he made that decision in the first place.

Jiang Cheng had been unworthy of the gift he had been given.

His shidi snarls and turns to Lan Zhan, "What are you doing here, Lan er-gonzi," He snarls, "Coming to triumph in our misery?"

Lan Zhan looks at him flatly, "I came to assist Wei Ying."

"Came to assist Wei Ying," Jiang Cheng mocks, his expression tight and furious, "Well, you're welcome to take him away! There's nothing left for him to destroy. Everything is gone. He invited the wrath of the Wens on our heads to protect you and that led to the destruction of my sect. He couldn't even repay that debt. His Grandmaster failed."

Jiang Cheng turns hate-filled eyes towards him, "You are a curse. My father should have left you to rot on the streets!"

"Jiang Wanyin!" Lan Zhan warns but Wei Wuxian places a hand on the Second Jade's arm to halt him.

"I'm taking you to Meishan to be with shijie." Wei Wuxian says calmly, "And then I'll go join the war efforts."

Jiang Cheng sneers before turning his head away, silent.

Wei Wuxian does as he says. He leaves Jiang Cheng in Jiang Yanli's care and heads to Qinghe with Lan Zhan. The war goes differently than before. He manages to kill Wen Zhuliu and Wen Chao early, which gives them a big morale boost. But that's the only thing that goes their way for a long time.

"I'm going to use it," He tells Lan Zhan once, when the scales tip dangerously in the Wen's favor.

Lan Zhan studies him before nodding gracefully, "I will help."

There's no way to avoid using his cultivation method, not if he wants to keep people safe. He's more careful and restrained this time and he doesn't create the Yīn Hǔ Fú. But Mo Dao is Mo Dao. It attracts disapproval from people regardless.

Wei Wuxian doesn't care and Lan Zhan stays by his side without paying any heed to the grumblings of his clan. He goes to sleep every night with Lan Zhan's guqin notes in his ear and meditates every morning with the Cleansing purging the Resentful Energy from his body.

With a powerful and active Golden Core, Wei Wuxian can't use Mo Dao liberally without risking Qi Deviation. But he uses enough to help them win the war.

Wei Wuxian successfully retakes Lotus Pier and Yunmeng from the Wens. Jiang Cheng's hatred doesn't diminish and even Jiang Yanli grows distant after a while. Jiang Cheng's suffering and downfall hardens something in his soft shijie.

Wei Wuxian accepts that consequence quietly.

He hands Lotus Pier back to Jiang Cheng and stays on the front lines, leaving most of the freshly recruited disciples behind to protect his former martial siblings. When the war ends, argues to keep the Wen cultivators in better conditions. He makes sure everyone knows how much the Jiangs owe the Wen siblings, and saves the children and elderly.

With Jiang Cheng out of the Cultivation World and Wei Wuxian's reputation as a war hero, saving the Wen remnants is easier than it had been before.

---

Everyone is baffled when Jiang Wanyin names a new head disciple and Wei Wuxian never returns to Yunmeng. People gossip, sect leaders question, and new Jiang disciple flounder.

Neither Jiang Wanyin nor Wei Wuxian confirms it but it is clear to everyone that the Jiang Sect has, foolishly, kicked out its most powerful disciple. YunmengJiang remains wealthy but the Sect's influence diminishes significantly once Wei Wuxian leaves.

Other Sects, big and small, scramble to find Wei Wuxian, ready to offer him a place and get a powerful cultivator in their ranks. Letters pour in promising wealth and prestige.

Wei Wuxian ignores them all and settles in Cloud Recesses. He's content to teach a group of eye-wide Lan ducklings now to deal with resentful energy and limit the risk of Qi Deviation. He takes them on Nighthunts, teaches them real-life lessons, encourages creativity, and becomes a well-loved senior.

New YunmengJiang disciples aren't near as strong as their predecessors without someone to teach them properly.

People gossip and speculate as the years pass. They hint that he is wrong to leave his former sect behind but he doesn't care.

Wei Wuxian has Lan Zhan and Lan Sizhui. Wen Qing and Wen Ning live happily in a small farming village not far from Gusu. They intervene before Jin Guangyao kills Nie Mingjue. They save Lan Xichen from heartache. Jin Ling is born and has both of his parents.

That's all he needs to be happy.

YunmengJiang is no longer his responsibility.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Prompt: JC discovers that he has the power to prevent the death of someone if he dies for them, like not real Death more like I experience the pain of dying like they should have and the person he saves remembers that they died but everything else is more or less okay. Now tell me how canon goes and how the Jiangs feel :) ps: I love everything u write and JC is my favorite so I want u to make me suffer for ever giving u this idea

1

“You are never allowed to do this again,” Jiang Cheng’s mother said, her voice harsh in the way that means she was scared, because she hated being scared. “Never again, you hear me?”

“I hear you, a-niang,” Jiang Cheng said. He was still dazed and dizzy from it, whatever it was – he’d just wanted to save the poor cat from the bullies, and he wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gone from wrestling with a few of them (that was a generous way of putting it, he’d been getting his ass kicked) to suddenly having his head cracked open and bleeding. “Did it live?”

“Yes, of course it lived, and then it ran away because it was a stray,” Madame Yu snapped. “You’re the one that nearly died! You can’t – death-sharing is a rare gift, A-Cheng, but you can’t use it too often, you hear me? Every time you use it, your own life gets shorter. You must never do it again. And you mustn’t tell anyone else about it! No one at all! Swear to me!”

“I swear,” he said. “No one at all.”

2

There was a time limit by which he could effectively death-share with someone, and that’s why he was desperate to get back to the Lotus Pier after they’d finally gotten loose again. The time limit, and the condition of the body – the more damaged it was, the worse it was, the harder to bring them back and the less good their condition to come back was, and worst of all, the people involved would be woken up right where their corpses were.

If he wanted to save his parents’ lives, they had to get the bodies.

He explained this to Wei Wuxian as they were running.

“You can do what with dead people?!” Wei Wuxian said, stunned, but Jiang Cheng tugged his hand. “Okay. We’ll think of something.”

“I’ll be the distraction while you get the bodies,” Jiang Cheng said firmly. “They’re more interested in me than you, since I’m the heir and you’re just annoying – and there’s a better chance that they’ll want to take me prisoner or something.”

“You don’t know that.”

“The signs said that they wanted me and jiejie alive. That’s something.”

“It’s your life you’re risking!”

“I’m willing to risk it,” Jiang Cheng said, but he hadn’t thought about how Wen Chao had Wen Zhuliu at his side.

At least, he thought to himself, by the time Wen Zhuliu melted his golden core, he’d already suffered through the same thing having happened to his father, too.

It didn’t help.

3

Jiang Fengmian and Madame Yu were still weak from the assault at the Lotus Pier, their cultivations severely damaged by the battle and the aftereffects of the death-sharing after being dead for too long for the process to go smoothly, so Wei Wuxian hid them away in a carriage and sent them back to Meishan Yu before returning to the Lotus Pier to rescue Jiang Cheng.

It made sense now, of course, why Jiang Cheng had wanted to be the distraction: he’d screamed a lot, when he death-shared, screaming and thrashing in agony as his body opened up simulacra wounds to mimic the ones suffered by the deceased. There would have been no way to hide him, much less for him to steal the corpses.

Rescuing Jiang Cheng led to Wen Ning, and Wen Ning led to Wen Qing, and Wen Qing –

It was worth it, Wei Wuxian thought to himself, his teeth gritted as he stared up into the unforgiving night sky of Yiling. It was worth it.

After all, Jiang Cheng would do the same for him in a heartbeat. Hadn’t he just seen that?

4

“That was incredibly stupid,” Madame Yu said irritably. “Incredibly stupid. You can’t keep hiding people who should be dead in Meishan, you know that, right?”

“What was I supposed to do?” Jiang Cheng said, throwing up his hands. “Let shijie be widowed? Leave A-Ling to grow up without his father?”

Wei Wuxian had let Wen Ning run rampage on everyone else there, grabbed Jin Zixuan’s corpse and fled at once; Jiang Cheng, upon hearing the news, had rushed to Meishan as well and now they had a living body where they had previously had a corpse except they couldn’t tell anyone about it.

“Your ability is the sort of thing that starts wars, Jiang Cheng,” Jin Zixuan said, rubbing his face. “If anyone found out you brought me back…maybe you should have let A-Li be widowed.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Jiang Cheng said. “You just have to – I don’t know – hide out for a while. That’s what we did with A-die and A-niang. Nobody knows they’re still alive…”

“That’s only because Uncle Jiang doesn’t have a golden core anymore, and Madame Yu didn’t want to come back,” Wei Wuxian pointed out. “Couldn’t we come up with some sort of story or something…?”

“There were a lot of witnesses to what happened, and Wen Ning didn’t kill all of them. He was pretty dead.”

“Damnit. I need to get back to Yiling, then; there’ll be reprisals about this.” Wei Wuxian shook his head. “Whatever you do, don’t use your death sharing on me, okay?”

“Get lost,” Jiang Cheng said. “And don’t do anything stupid.”

Wei Wuxian left.

“He’s going to do something stupid, isn’t he?” he asked his mother.

“Shut up and drink your damn medicine,” Madame Yu said. “You still have a fist-sized hole in your chest.”

Her fingers were gentle in his hair.

5

Jiang Cheng opened his eyes to the smell of soup. “Jiejie?” he asked, voice raspy.

“I knew it would work!” Wei Wuxian crowed. “I told you he’d wake up if you made him soup!”

“Yes, yes, A-Xian, you’re a genius,” Jiang Yanli said. “A-Cheng, how are you feeling?”

He considered it.

“Like I’ve been stabbed several times, and then ripped apart by a horrific backlash of power within the same day,” he said honestly.

“You’ve been unconscious for a long while,” she said, worrying her lip. “We didn’t know if you’d wake up.”

“I told you not to do it!” Wei Wuxian said, stabbing at him with his finger. “I told you -!”

Jiang Cheng glared at him. “You don’t have a golden core.”

“What?” Jiang Yanli said, even as Wei Wuxian froze.

“I can feel what happens to a golden core when someone’s dying,” Jiang Cheng said. “You don’t have one. At all…you gave it to me, didn’t you? All that bullshit about Baoshan Sanren, that was all lies, wasn’t it? And Wen Qing did the transfer?”

“Oh, A-Xian..!”

“You’d have done it for me,” Wei Wuxian exclaimed. “You – you did do it for me. Just now. You screamed so much…it was worth it.”

“You still should have told us,” Jiang Cheng said. “Now you’re going to have to hide away for the rest of your life! Just like a-die and a-niang!”

“A-Xuan and I are quite happy living as Jiang sect retainers, if you can get partial custody of A-Ling,” Jiang Yanli put in. “And a-die and a-niang are really enjoying their retirement in Meishan Yu, actually.”

“Everyone would figure it out if someone who looked even a little bit like Wei Wuxian showed up in the Lotus Pier, though.”

“Why don’t you have him go to Gusu?” Jin Zixuan asked from the door. “Hanguang-jun’s only been in love with him forever; he’ll agree.”

They all turned to stare at him.

“What?” he asked, clearly puzzled. “I know it’s one of those things we never talk about, but surely it’s the right time to –”

“He’s in what with me?” Wei Wuxian demanded.

“…you didn’t know?”

“No!” Jiang Cheng exclaimed. “Nobody would think that!”

“But it’s so obvious…?”

“Well,” Jiang Yanli said practically. “It would solve the problem, wouldn’t it? No one would expect A-Xian to resurrect himself in the Cloud Recesses. We could give you a nice new name…how do you feel about ‘Mo’?”

[chrisemrysfics]

After my post on Wangxian and unconditional love, among other things, I realized I forgot all about a source of unconditional love for Wei Wuxian: the Wen siblings and remnants.

Here is the thing: first, Wei Wuxian had a few years with his parents, he barely has memories, yet he remember the sense of happiness, joy, and the love of his parents, both for each other, and for him.

Then, he lose them, and faces the streets. And then he’s picked by Jiang Fengmian, and brought “home”... and right away there’s an issue with Jiang Cheng and puppies. Yu Ziyuan also shows displeasure.

Jiang Yanli shows care for him, while Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian make peace, however, from here on, Wei Wuxian is under constant disapproval by Yu Ziyuan.

And I believe Wei Wuxian is not blind to Jiang Cheng being hurt by what his mother says, and the apparent not-care his father shows. But he says it and I believe he’s right: Jiang Fengmian is lenient toward Wei Wuxian because Wei Wuxian is not his son. What appears as indulgence, is simply that he doesn’t care all that much past what Wei Wuxian is bringing to the clan.

He doesn’t seek his safety: he could have chosen to make Wei Wuxian stay to Lotus Pier rather than let him go to Nightless City, but he didn’t. He even said “he can choose”, which make him wash his hands of responsibility and make Wei Wuxian own up to his own fate. And his last words to me nailed the confirmation: he doesn’t give any word of care, he only echo what Yu Ziyuan said: protect my children.

Wei Wuxian grew up knowing he’ll be scorned by Yu Ziyuan regardless of whether or not he’s truly at fault, and knowing Jiang Fengmian doesn’t really care, as long as he’s around, he let him do what we want, knowing Wei Wuxian is loyal to the Jiang and to his children. Jiang Cheng express it awkwardly, but his attempts at “taming” Wei Wuxian “hero complex” is that he recognizes no one else is trying to stop him from harming himself (including his father). However, because Jiang Cheng let himself be influenced, he doesn’t show unconditional love, Wei Wuxian knows he cares, but Wei Wuxian also recognize Jiang Cheng doesn’t understand him.

This leave only Jiang Yanli that he can be himself with. We understand he feels safe with her, to show his true self, that he know he’ll be love without condition, because it is to her, and only her, he asked such a thing as “why does someone like someone else”. And that’s why his hesitancy to tell her anything about the three months disappearance is so heart-breaking, and she can be seen being worried still: for the first time, he doesn’t tell her.

And this shows how he views himself. For the first time, he thinks there is finally something that might be the one think Jiang Yanli won’t accept. That he’s become something that finally is where she draws the line. No one else before her truly showed any unconditional love, and he’s terrified what will happen if he let her see who he has become.

And it explain why he push away Lan Wangji: he knows Lan Wangji values are righteous, to Wei Wuxian, if Lan Wangji disapprove of him, it means he’s something that cannot approved of. Which then reinforce the idea that he cannot show Jiang Yanli what he’s become.

In the end, he’s traumatized, and scared to be rejected by the two people he cared for the most. He knew he felt pulled to Lan Wangji, he cared for him, he knew in his heart he valued him, just like he values Jiang Yanli. If he allowed himself to be vulnerable, and he got rejected, it would break him. So he didn’t take the risk.

All of that to arrive to the Wen siblings.

And the important thing I realized is that it never was a question of owing each other anything.

Wei Wuxian met Wen Ning, and showed kindness to him, which is pretty clear Wen Ning rarely, if ever, received, outside of his sister and the branch of their family. Its enough for Wen Ning to want to come when he hears about Lotus Pier, and willing to help them.

When Wen Qing enters the scene, she knows the risks, but there is a vital factor that made her decide to let them stay hidden and recover: her brother. Yes, she is a healer, however, it was risky to allow this, except, this was someone who inspired loyalty in her brother, someone who treated her brother well. Someone with a brother that was hurt.

Then, Wei Wuxian asks her to do the surgery, and she refuses. She knows what this will mean, and the thing is, I do end up thinking he’s not blind to how he’s been treated. He had to develop his own moral compass because either he’s scorned no matter if he’s at fault or not, or he’s “indulged”, or he’s not understood. He cares, and he sees himself as owing everything to the Jiang, but I feel like he knows how it can sound like. Wen Qing refuses because she isn’t certain he truly realize what he is asking, or she questions how willing he is, past any conditioning. But he insists, and she sees something that let her know that he does know what he is asking for.

Ultimately, Wei Wuxian is still misunderstood when people think his choice is because he’s been conditioned: yes, of course, we can understand someone shouldn’t have to sacrifice himself, that they shouldn’t have to “pay back” in such a manner... except no one asked. No one forced him to do this. He looked at his brother, and decided he didn’t want to see him like this. Wen Qing refusing meant he had the occasion to rethink his choice. He still chose.

That’s why they also speak of not owing anything to each other: Wen Qing chose to help them, and Wei Wuxian chose to go through the transplant. They understand the risks they took for each other, they had each other life in the other hands (if WWX and JC are seen, its death for WQ, if WQ fails, its death for WWX).

And that’s why they don’t seek each other, they owe nothing to each other, understand where they stand in the war, and trust each other has continued to follow the path of their heart. Wen Qing didn’t betray her values as a healer, nor did Wei Wuxian betray his own values.

However, Wen Qing ended up desperate, and there was only one person she knew had values she could trust: Wei Wuxian. She knows what she is asking out of him, but just like she didn’t leave Wei Wuxian and his brother to their own fate, Wei Wuxian would not leave her and her brother to their own fate. Just like he chose for the transplant, she knew Wei Wuxian would choose what is true to his heart.

And so they end up in Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian once more doing a sacrifice, yet it is done out of his own choice, the refusal to betray his own values (be it that it was the care for his brother back then, or the protection of innocent now). And here is the thing: Wen Qing knows about Wei Wuxian’s core.

And the Wen Remnants are well placed to fear him, distrust him, be unkind to him, but they don’t. More than that, they welcome him as family. He becomes family to them, and they become family to him. No one judges him, they all see him, and none of them disapprove of him, and they care for him.

To me, Wei Wuxian only ever had two things that were truly his: his demonic cultivation, and the Wen Remnants as family.

He says it himself: he owes spiritual cultivation to the Jiang. But demonic cultivation? He chose to not die, to resist, to survive, to return, to continue following his own values, and developed his own tools for it. He saw the scorn of others, but knew his heart, and stayed true to it. Everything “bad” about him was his trauma, not his cultivation (proven as to how he is, after his death and return).

And the Wen Remnants, they became his family. The Jiang siblings are his family of adoption, but the Wens were the family he, himself, adopted. They were to him what the Jiang Clan was to JC: the people he would protect, the one he placed first.

If JC and/or JYL had no one else to turn to, WWX would have protected them too. But JC had a whole sect, and JYL was part of it. More than that, the best protection was to distance himself, the Wens already had a tainted reputation, like his own, but not his siblings (and same for LWJ). He couldn’t take that risk.

And the strength of his heart and values show when everything goes extremely bad: he accidentally kills JZX, he doesn’t manage to protect/save the Wen Siblings, and still he doesn’t outright slaughter everyone, he attacks after being provoked. He also stop when JYL show up, but because someone else tried to kill him, he sees her protect him and die to protect him... just like the Wen Siblings.

And he just effectively lost the last, and first, sibling who has loved him unconditionally. The Wen Siblings knew all about his lost core, while JYL knew about him in many ways. Loosing all three of them, effectively meant he lost the three people who knew him best and loved him without condition.

Is it so surprising that his psyche broke there? He went mad with grief, the trauma catching up to him. Then he finds himself conscious again, away from Nightless City, not knowing there is still one person who loves him.

And what does he decide to do? Break the seal. Now, I realized a thing: he didn’t die from breaking the first half. The accounts are confusing on purpose, but he himself is seen thinking about how he broke half of it, but didn’t have time to break the second before the Siege happened.

This means he knows how to do it without dying... or he was already half dead.

Then he looses the Wen Remnants, he’s Sieged by the whole cultivation world, including his own brother. There’s no Lan Wangji in sight, leaving him uncertain whether he doesn’t deserve to die in Lan Wangji eyes, or if he’s not even worthy of Lan Wangji being present. Or if its a last kindness, to not be part of the people who attack him.

But Wei Wuxian has lost everything, everyone, his own brother is here with hate and grief in his eyes, Wei Wuxian knows there is greed behind the Siege, and so he finishes what he started: he destroys the seal.

And to this day, I am still convinced there was no backlash, but rather, a last command, either conscious, or one he didn’t realize he made but born of how he was feeling.

However, because he never returned as a vengeful ghost, this make me consider that, for all his death was violent, he died with a peaceful heart.

He knew his own heart and values, and he followed them to his last breath. He knew the greed and blindness of the cultivation world, but what would he do? Kill them all? Be what they claimed he was? No. And then, to him, he caused the deaths of people he never wanted to: JZX and JYL. To someone who gave his core because he considered he owed it to the Jiang, what will he give, if he consider he owed to repay the deaths he caused?

He chose, died with peace in his heart because he followed it to his last breath.

And I wonder if the corpses “eating him” weren’t eating the resentment within him. That’s a whole other headcanon to develop.

But yes, all of this to say: the Wen Remnants were WWX family, the Wen Siblings became his siblings, and WWX remained true to his heart up until the end.

That’s why he didn’t return as a vengeful ghost, and why he was calm and level-headed when he returned. It also strongly imply his temper and so-called “lack of control” were due to his trauma. Yet, this just goes to show how strong willed he is, to both survive the Burial Mounds, and never loose himself, and show that he is truly the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, because he never lost himself through it, and still mastered it.

[laryna6]

MZDS AU where LXC and LWJ’s dad goes on the run with his gf instead of capturing her and basically imprisoning them both. They disguise themselves and eventually start traveling with WWX’s parents, meaning they don’t die in a night hunt bc backup from Murder Mom and Dad who is very righteous and dedicated to following the Lan traditions especially the ones about True Love. 

After she’s raped by the Jin sect leader, the Su sect leader’s wife denounces him everywhere by sending letters and also goes on the run (possibly because her husband refuses to believe her that it wasn’t consensual/she’s concerned for the child?).

Madam Jin, with the assistance of Madam Yu, has JGS assassinated and Madam Jin like lets it be known that she’s willing to take in her husband’s bastards/see them raised right. JGY’s mom can’t leave the brothel bc she’s property and her son’s too young to travel on his own, so she sends a letter asking if they could pick him up - Madam Jin shows up and buys her, figuring she could use some help with the children - and she can also tutor the girls in music and such. JGY and QS grow up sibs and QS beats up people who make fun of JGY for his mom being an ex-prostitute.

With the example of his parents, LWJ is much more aware of Feelings and decides at a young age that Wei Ying Is Mine. LWJ doesn’t initiate Getting Into Trouble, but he goes along with Wei Ying bc Must Protec and draws graffiti, steals chickens and jumps off cliffs bc Wei Ying was doing it. Wei Ying is like ‘sure I’ll marry Lan Zhan when I grow up!’ Their parents aww except Murder Mom, who is awwing internally. LXC is desensitized to shenanigans by growing up with the shenanigans of Wei Ying and Wei Ying’s other half and develops epic level chill. He has seen it all.

WWX’s parents and the people who aren’t the AWOL Lan sect leader and his murder gf go and visit the Jiangs every so often. WWX never develops a fear of dogs (and actually fails to develop a sane level of fear of anything, because his parents are badass cultivators and he has Lan Zhan to protect him too), so they’re fine playing with Jiang Cheng and his puppies. Madam Yu and Murder Mom got along GREAT and Murder Mom may have been the one to dress up as a Wen Sect cultivator and kill JGS. LXC and JYL hanging out being the chill sibs. It’s discovered that JYL isn’t suited to the Jiang sect’s method of cultivation, so she goes and visits the other sects to study cultivation techniques and gets good results with the Nie methods, which makes JC go wha. Madam Yu is Very Pleased. NHS starts calling her big sis and JC is Jealous.

The parents decide to all send their kids to the Lan sect at the same time. LQR is Concerned about his nephews growing up with Murder Sis-in-Law but they’re such calm, dutiful boys-and then Wei Ying yells to Lan Zhan about going on a booze run and LWJ is out while LXC sips his tea. WWX and LWJ hanging out in the library pavillion copying texts together.

JZX still does Teenage Rebellion claiming he’s too good for JYL, which makes JC and his dogs growl at him while WWX just points and laughs, because JYL is fantastic and JZX is a dumbass if he can’t see how great she is. JZX having his sexual awakening when JYL gets back from the Nie sect and he sees her practicing with a saber as big as she is. Unfortunately NHS wrote to NMJ about JZX dissing JYL and NMJ showed up at Lotus Pier to make it very clear that if her engagement were to fall through, clearly she belongs at Nie Sect (the brothers each ship each other with JYL). JZX realizing that crap, his competition is NMJ...

As LWJ’s fiancee, WWX competes for the Lan sect at the discussion conference and the Wens demand he gets sent along with the Lan sect disciples for the turtle incident. On the run, LXC runs into JGY and QS, who are night hunting. JGY laments that his type is slightly older guys with ridiculous upper body strength - he already had a crush on NMJ and now here’s this loser who tears apart their clothing when he does the laundry and all JGY can think about is LXC tearing his clothing off him.

With their kids at Lan Sect (LXC learning to be heir), Murder Mom and Ultra Lan Dad plus WWX’s parents were hanging out at the Jiangs until the Wens demand Jiang sect disciples too. Murder Mom stalks after them, sneaks into the camp, finds out what happened at Lan sect and when Wen Chao heads into the wilderness the four parents start picking off the guards one by one. They rescue the kids from the turtle and bring them back to Lotus Pier, where the Wens attack and Madam Yu demands they get Jiang Cheng to safety. Not sure how to have stuff play out from this point on, however we do need - 

JGY drooling over LXC and NMJ and Qin Su over Wen Qing and the two half-sibs conspiring together.

JZX postwar trying to develop some muscles to Win Back JYL

LWJ not giving a damn that WWX won’t be accepted into Lan sect as a demonic cultivator - they’ll just continue nighthunting with his Murder Mom.

Wen Ning crushing on WWX but finding LWJ intimidating up until he sees LWJ with his poker face doing ridiculous stuff because WWX is, at which point he despairs of them both. Wen Ning trying desperately to wrangle drunk!WWX and LWJ. LWJ being aware of WN’s crush and being like ‘ah yes, good taste that cultivator.’ Like. WWX has been His for basically as long as LWJ can remember, it doesn’t really occur to him to be jealous? It’s not like there’s any chance of him losing WWX, although when he’s in danger of losing WWX like WWX getting killed LWJ goes and shows that he’s Murder Mom’s son. Eventually a threesome happens via WWX deciding to offer to With Benefits Wen Ning and LWJ seducing along with WWX bc they do everything together. 

[meny-sempai]

MO DAO ZU SHI IS A MASTERPIECE – part 02

Hey, guys! I hope you enjoyed the first post I made and I hope you had some laughs over my blind reactions for the first two episodes. Before we continue, I’ll just repeat this for the new readers:

I’m not a native English speaker so please bear with the mistakes I’m bound to make. I did read the novel, but only as far as the Exiled Rebels Scanlations translated it (thank you Rebels, you’re gods). I know a lot of spoilers, but I can’t say I know the whole story – If I start theorizing be aware that I’m just theorizing, I’m not actually telling the plot, but, just to be sure: SPOILERS ahead, I will use the facts I know for my analysis.

In this short series I’ll talk about the episodes, but I’ll also have long monologues about a certain topic.

POINT OF VIEW IN MO DAO ZU SHI – or, there are so many untold/told stories stuffed in one

As I mentioned, at the time of the airing of the third episode I started reading the novel and tried to catch up with the show only to realize that the novel and the animation took different approach in telling the story.

I have to say – there are a lot of things the show cut out of the novel, but there is also a lot the show did to expand and explain certain parts of the novel. Especially the parts I thought weren’t quite clear in the original text. Another obvious difference between the show and the novel is that, for the most part, in the novel we see things from Wei Wuxian’s perspective. In the show we are often offered many POVs, so in a way, we are experiencing the story as a “neutral” observer.

Seeing the story from one perspective is very interesting and it is something that we actually do in real life. We filter everything through ourselves – we are the center of all. This storytelling approach helps us take Wei Wuxian’s side and understand it more, but we also realize at the same time that the meaning of everything that ever happens depends on the point of view. I do believe one of the goals of the novel was to challenge the rule of the point of view – not everything takes one shape, what we know is never the whole “truth”, our deeds can never be universally correct or incorrect.

Let’s think drastically for a moment. I know we all hate the Wen dogs and think they deserve everything that happened to them. I don’t like them at all, don’t worry. I’m not justifying what they did, I’m just opening a discussion:

What if we look at the whole thing differently? What if the story was told from Wen Ruohan’s perspective? There might have been a reasonable reason why the Wen sect acted in the way they did. We know they were the leaders of the cultivation world because they were the largest and therefore the strongest of all, but how did they become so big and strong? Why did people choose to go to the Wens instead to some other clan? Why did the other clans let the Wens become their leaders? For how long were they on top?

We know Nie Mingjue wanted revenge for the death of his father who was killed by the Wen clan. We feel bad for him and want him to succeed because right from the start we see the Wen clan from “the good guys’” POV. What if there was a good reason why the Wens were in conflict with Nie Mingjue’s father (There might be some info in the novel about this. If there is then I either missed it or haven’t read it yet because it’s not yet translated)? We don’t know if they did, but it seems to me that none of the other sects cared enough about this incident to take action – not surprising considering how long they needed to assemble and start the Sunshot campaign. It doesn’t look like any of the clans like to play as a team and protect one another. Is it just because the Wen clan is too big to fight? How was it before Wen Ruohan? Are the Wens bad only during his rule? If so, why did Wen Rouhan turn this way?

Speaking of bad – we see a lot of bad Wens, but we see a lot of good ones too. I really like this because it just adds on an already vast world of grey in Mo Dao Zu Shi – there is no black and white (even our OTP – Wei Wuxian (black) and Lan WangJi (white) show their best qualities only when together (grey) – WOW that’s some cringe right there… moving on.)

Speaking of bad – Wen Chao… Oh boy, yeah, he’s a rotten one. But what about the other brother? The one we never got to see. The one whose head was chopped off by Nie Mingjue? The first child of Wen Rouhan, Wen Xu, died before we got to know him. What was he doing during the archery tournament? Why was Wen Chao representing the clan instead of the eldest son? Why don’t we see Wen Ruohan speak of his heir? There are so many ways to interpret this.

Maybe Wen Xu was, unlike his brother, a talented cultivator and was at odds with his father? If his father is “evil” what if he was trying to be “good”/was “good”? If not, perhaps, like Nie Huaisang, he didn’t want to be a classic cultivator. What if Wen Xu had anxiety like Wen Ning? Maybe the eldest son of Wen Rouhan was even worse at cultivation than Wen Chao. What if the heir was unable to perform his duties? What if he was slowly dying from some disease? What if something like this was the reason why Rouhan gave important tasks to Wen Chao? What if he was preparing him to be the heir instead of his brother? And what if Rouhan loved A Xu and didn’t want to have Wen Chao as an heir but had to? Wen Chao is a lousy choice for anything and Rouhan knows this – we’ve seen his reactions to his son’s boasting etc. The clan is already experiencing a low quality in cultivators and will definitely fall in Wen Chao’s hands, but what if Wen Chao is the only option? Showing power, pride and honor in order to scare off other sects, to stop them from rising against Wen sect after Rouhan steps down seems plausible and reasonable – a leader must protect his people and from his perspective Rouhan is doing just that. He’s doing it for the sake of peaceful future for his people.

Let’s be even more drastic – Wen Rouhan is responsible for Nie Mingjue’s father’s death, but he didn’t enslave the Nie sect (as far as we know) and he didn’t kill either of the heirs even though he knew they’ll seek vengeance. But when Nie Mingjue took his first steps towards revenge he didn’t kill Rouhan – he savagely killed his son, the future of the Wen clan, Wen Xu, who was probably a child just like he was when Rouhan wronged the Nie. Therefore – Wen Xu was innocent of the crime Nie Mingjue wanted revenge for and was still killed. 

And what if just like Jiang Fengmian, Rouhan also seemingly had a favorite in the family? What if Wen Chao was ignored and emotionally abused by his father his whole life? Those who bully are often bullied themselves, or they see the bullying as the only way to fix their complexes and release their pent up anger they have towards those who make them feel inferior. Wen Chao is untalented and not so bright – by his abilities he is a disgrace for the strongest clan. He is obviously afraid of his father and wants to please him. And he always fails – he failed at the archery tournament, he failed in the cave… He gave his all NOT to fail at Lotus Pier. He bullies Wen Ning because he was bullied in the same way for his flaws. He is violent and he gets even more violent when someone points out his flaws because he needs to vent and he can’t show his dissatisfaction to his main bully – his father.

Give us some more info about the Wen family dynamics and we could get a similar picture to the Jiangs. Fortunately, the Jiangs had certain character qualities and Wei Wuxian so they didn’t go full on dark side. How ironic. (I’ll talk about this particular irony in later posts.)

So… Did I change your opinion of Wen Chao? Eh, probably not. That wasn’t my intention, anyway. But tell me this, and be honest – How many of you didn’t like Jiang Cheng when he first appeared in ep 2? Ah! But JC is not evil, he didn’t kill people like Wen Chao did! Wen Chao destroyed Yunmeng Jiang sect and tortured Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng (he was whipped in the novel with the discipline whip). A sad past doesn’t justify your wrong-doings! And you’re right! But, let me ask you this – Jiang Cheng killed a lot of Wens, he never stopped hating them, he helped in destroying their clan. He hunted down everyone who tried the demonic cultivation and as far as we know he tortured those people to death. Isn’t this bad? Wei Wuxian literally and metaphorically went mad after the Burial Mounds and massacred the Wens. In the most horrible ways. Was his revenge justified? Two wrongs doesn’t make a right. If we were just dropped in the scene where Wei Wuxian kills Wen Chao not knowing anything about these people, we would probably think that this Wei Wuxian is a sadistic bastard. Who in their right mind makes someone eat their own flesh? It’s soooo over the top.

But most of you enjoyed seeing that scene (me, not so much, but I did enjoy what he did to that bitch Wang Lingjiao).

We kinda forgive/overlook what Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng did and still love them.

Jin Guangyao did a lot of shady shit too, but I don’t see him being passionately hated.

So, yes. I’m not saying that the Wens did nothing wrong. And I’m not saying that our heroes did nothing wrong, either. NO. I’m just saying that telling a story from a certain POV is powerful and Mo Dao Zu Shi does it in a way that challenges the “obvious goodness” even in the main cast. It does so especially in the animation where many scenes are not seen from Wei Wuxian’s eyes. This helps us understand why some people reacted in certain ways to what Wei Wuxian did/caused.

Mo Dao Zu Shi has such fine writing. The character animation and all the hints the creative team leaves to its viewers only add to the experience. One character says one thing, the other says the same thing but in a different way/tone, the third says nothing but there is something in the frame hinting that he has his own feelings towards what is being said and BAM – on the surface their opinions match, on the inside their POVs are in conflict. Mo Dao Zu Shi makes this exchange look easy to create, but it’s not.

As I said in the first post – everything matters in this show. Not one frame is wasted. And not a single character is purely good or evil.

…

… Ok.

Ok, ok.

Lan XiChen is probably the only purely good character in this freaking story. I am aware of some spoilers, but I still can’t say he has any “evil” in him. Gotta wait and see how the finale plays out.

Damn.

… He’s perfect. I mean… Just look at this guy.

No one has such a smi-

Goddamn it.

Ah… no, wait. He does have some “evil/anger” in him as a Ghost general… Hmm, ok, Wen Ning is debatable, but he is a cinnamon roll with the purest smi-

ALRIGHT. FINE. I was wrong!

But I’m not counting Lan Sizhui and the kids, ok? I’m not!

Ok! SO!

There are at least three purely good characters in this damn show.

AND HOW DO THEY END UP?

HMM???

Is this a comment on reality I’m seeing? What are you trying to say Mo Xiang Tong Xiu? Ha?

Don’t be purely good? Be good, but with a touch of Wei Wuxian just to spice it up? Ok, lesson learned.

Moving on!

EPISODE 03 - or, the true BAE appears

Greetings! Welcome to my harem! Take your clothes off and feel at home! 

I gotta admit, I did freak out when I saw JC for the first time, but Jin Zixuan… dayum, girl. This one is totally my type. Even now, I believe JC was made just for me, but that’s not why he ended up being my favorite character in this show. In the end I see Jiang Cheng as my precious son or a baby brother. But Zixuan… Naha, man, you’re no son of mine! Take it off, I said, take off those clothes and come here! JC, lend me your Zidian. I wanna make this one cry~

If only he wasn’t already spoken for. I don’t wanna piss off that lady. The sweet ones are always the worst.  

Jokes aside, I’ll talk about this guy some other time. I have a lot to say about his character.

I just think it’s interesting how both Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue have same threats in their repertoire. JC is only talk and no bite, but I can’t be 100% sure if Nie Mingjue is too. I believe he did love his little brother and was probably aggressive in order to protect him. Nie Mingjue had to deal with a lot at a very young age and he does have a bit of a temper. Not to mention the other spoilery thing about the Nie clan’s cultivation method. I can’t wait to find out more about the brothers’ relationship.

There are quite a few similarities between Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue. Funnily enough, Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang also have a lot in common.

As far as the first encounters go this one is quite memorable… and ends up being a lot like this jar of Emperor’s smile.

Also, this is a really clever way to cut from one scene to another without making it look like the scene was forcefully shoved in. It doesn’t break the flow. It expresses the emotion this encounter has left not only on Lan WangJi and Wei Wuxian, but also on Nie Huaisang who is listening to the story of it. Immediately, we know how he’ll react upon hearing it and we have an idea of how severely Wei Wuxian broke the rules and how great of an impact he made.

Even after watching it three times I still notice some new things. Jiang Cheng is so worried here for Wei Wuxian that it’s cute. The moment he realizes Wei Wuxian answered all of the questions correctly he sighs and relaxes. Damn… I knew he was overprotective from the start, but this is giving me cavities… Is having cavities good or bad, I wonder? The scene before he was all like: Lan WangJi is targeting you, you’re on your own, good luck (you dumb fuck). The moment no one’s looking...

And Wei Wuxian… he’s such a typical too smart for your own good. Gotta admire the dude.

This is just so funny. Wei Wuxian moved out of the way like a pro, JC is face palming, Lan WangJi and Jin Zixuan are surprised and shocked about what Wei Wuxian is saying. And the scene where Nie Huaisang is like: Don’t pick me! - That’s the most relatable shit I’ve ever seen. XD This is all an amusing way to show every student’s personality.

Not all of the Wens are assholes (and I’m not talking about the obvious ones like Wen Ning and his sister). The young one is not happy in letting the Waterborne Abyss go to the Gusu Lan territory, but the old guy doesn’t care and he is in charge. Also, the young master ordered it dead. Was it Wen Chao? Really? That guy? I’m not so certain. Something tells me Wen Xu is the young master they are talking about.

I talked in the last post how everything they show has a meaning. In most shows when people talk they add scenes that look like this one (butterflies flying, clouds moving etc), but they usually have no other purpose than to make the conversation more interesting to watch. Here, these scenes are important hints/foreshadowing. I’m not gonna talk here about the significance of such scenes. If you’re interested, visit DongHua Reviews on YouTube. He already said everything better than I ever could. He also does deep analysis so if you wanna find out more about Mo Dao Zu Shi or see if you missed something go visit his profile and watch the video reviews.

…

…?

Oh! Oh, no, I just love the backgrounds in this show. Moving on.

This is just so cute… and flirty no matter how you look at it. I’m in awe at how they managed to depict their personalities just by showing their hands.

That’s some great hand animation right there. Also, the music is so good here. At moments, it actually reminds me of Beauty and the Beast (when they play in snow).

So beautiful. And once again they used an interesting way to cut from Lan WangJi to Wei Wuxian by letting the paper fall in between them concealing one and revealing the other.

For some reason it was so refreshing for me when I realized Lan WangJi was the first to feel romantic feelings towards Wei Wuxian; to be aware of them and actively try to erase them until he gives up and let them bloom. The other boy was just being a brat, bugging someone who he found so different from himself and therefore interesting. He also wanted to make him his friend and to maybe “corrupt” him. Many later scenes suggest that Wei Wuxian also started having romantic feeling towards the younger Jade, but was completely unaware of them. He’s so freaking dense, I swear to god. It’s so funny and somehow very realistic.

Both of them (the others too) are acting like teens and dorks and that’s how it should be. Sure, they are talented cultivators and are smarter than most their age, but the show is aware of the fact that they are all around 15 years old. I was 15 ten years ago and I was a very different person back then. I remember my thought process and all the illogical shit I did so when I see these characters act like brats, when I see them make wrong decisions and conclusions I totally believe in what I see and I understand it all. Most shows don’t let their MCs act their age, they don’t let them make stupid mistakes, big AND small ones like laughing when you shouldn’t etc. They don’t let them act “dumb”, unreasonable and rash. When I watch Mo Dao Zu Shi and see Lan WangJi as an adult and Lan WangJi as a teen I believe in the change of his personality. I see why his reactions to same things are different. When I read the novel and see Wei Wuxian cursing himself for something he did when he was young I believe that he really is upset about it. I get why he now agrees with people who at that time told him he was annoying. Don’t get me wrong, you can never change from the core, but you do GROW UP, your point of view changes, the things that affected you don’t affect you anymore/affect you differently and you deal with them differently. Growing up is apparent in MDZS.

I find it so funny when Jin Ling attacks the statue goddess in ep2 and Wei Wuxian is like: What is that brat doing? Trying to die? My dear, Wei Ying, you would have done the exact same thing.

EPISODE 04 – or, the brotherhood is killing me softly

Jiang Cheng grumbling in his head: “So you ARE aware of the fact.”

But you see… knowing what happens in the future, this same sentence brings so much pain to my heart.

GHAAAAA OH MY GOD, SOMEBODY SAVE ME from blood loss! 0.0

Oh JC… Jiang Cheng literally pushed Wei Wuxian away into Lan Zhan’s boat (*cough* hands *cough*).

Also, Lan Zhan actually started a conversation with Wei Wuxian by his own accord (baby steps), but my favorite brat Wei Wuxian ruined the moment with Whatever line. He was sincere, but Lan Zhan is just… being a stuck-up. XD

SCREENSHOT! I’m a proud mom. Not to you Jin Zixuan, you know how I feel about you, babe.

Oh boy… I’ll leave my essay on Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng for some other time.

In the meantime – that surfing on swords scene was epic. Great animation, superb music. I’m amazed at how they managed all the water animation in this episode. There are so many fun battle scenes in this show and none of them are the same (except for the deliberate similarities important to the plot). I applause to that.

I just appreciate the directing of this scene. In the deep, the light reaches out to pull him out of the dark. From the “ribbon shape” it’s clear that it’s Lan Zhan who is coming to his rescue. Add the meaning of the Gusu Lan ribbon to it and the scene becomes deeply romantic in the purest way possible. Remember the scene from the novel when SPOILER Lan Zhan gets drunk and ties him up and the scene becomes romantic in the not so pure way. XD In any way – they are tied together by the ribbon of fate.

They are so good at handling the light.

I’m having episode 15 PTSD attack. They really did thought of everything, ha?

I’m sorry, I see those two together - I screenshot. It’s a reflex. 

I also adore how they both react in their own trademark way to those other two idiots’ flirting. XD Also, I just noticed it, but the sun is between them. That of course is just how the shoot should be composed to look good, but for me and my crazy ass it just means more material for my fanfiction (because, you see, the sun is the Wen clan and they stand between them – usually the thing in between keeps the couple separate which in a way it does here too, but in this particular case the whole tragedy started with the Wens and the tragedy is what brought the two together – in my head at least).

Well, that’s all for today. Once again, this is too long, but what can I do? Hope you like my rambling. See you next time!

[grewlikefancyflowers]

The Nie sect’s cultivation method actually uses the spirit’s of non-humans - as in yao and/or guai.

But yes, from what we see, the Nie sect’s sabre cultivation seems to a one way ticket to an early death, which is precisely why Nie Huaisang avoids it. 

I wouldn’t say WWX’s downfall was due to arrogance - as he explained to Lan Wangji in chapter 75 -  ‘“Nobody can give me a nice, broad road to walk on. A road where I could protect those I want to protect without having to cultivate the ghostly path.” ‘

I think he refuses to contemplate the possibility of losing control of his cultivation not because he was arrogant, but because it made no difference either way - he could either use it to protect the Wens, or give up his cultivation and let them die. Of course, letting them die isn’t an option, and he’s just not the kind of person to fret over things when doing so isn’t useful.

Later on, when JZXun attacks him, and later the sects gather and plan to kill him, stepping down means letting them kill him, and then the Wens too. 

During the SSC, WWX’s cultivation wasn’t criticised, people found it frightening, but more than anything they were glad to have someone so powerful fighting for them - ‘everyone feared him and flattered him’ (Ch.50)

The problem came when they realised that they couldn’t control WWX - they try to demean him, for being too ‘arrogant’ for the son of a servant, but WWX (and JYL) is having none of it. WWX makes it clear, when he shows up JZX at the archery contest at the beginning of the Phoenix mountain hunt in Ch.69, that he’s not willing to be ‘put in his place’ by the others sects, this is what frightens them, not his power, but that its him who has it.

After all, JGS covets the yin hufu, but no one protests the idea of a sect leader having the same power WWX does. 

As for Jiang Cheng, the problem here is that he is the only one who could have done anything to improve the situation following WWX’s departure with the Wens, but his resentment of WWX got in the way of that. I already made a post about how JC has had an underlying resentment of WWX since childhood, so I won’t repeat myself here.

First of all, following the war, JC could have done something to elevate WWX’s position from simply a disciple and the son of a servant of the Jiang Clan - JGY was adopted into the Jin Clan in recognition for his deeds during the war, and of course 3zun became sworn brothers. Considering that WWX did a lot during the Sunshot Campaign, it seems a little cold that JC gave WWX no recognition at all. They could have become sworn brothers, JC could have even made him a recognised member of the Jiang Clan. Doing this would not have fixed everything, obviously, but it would have at least given people less ammunition to hate WWX with. (After all, while JGY is chief cultivator, people don’t bring up his parentage, its only when he falls from grace when its openly spoken about once more - power and position gives people armour from criticism, whether that criticism be valid or not)

Secondly, during the initial discussion following WWX’s departure in Ch.73, JC was explicitly given the opportunity to explain that the Wens were innocent, and that WWX was helping them because JC owed them a life debt. He initially does try to explain, but...

‘Everyone, I’m afraid you don’t know that the Wen cultivator whom Wei WuXian wanted to save was called Wen Ning. We owe him and his sister Wen Qing gratitude for what happened during the Sunshot Campaign.”’ 

He vaguely references owing them a debt, but straight after he says this, NMJ mentions the fall of Lotus Pier.

‘When he heard Nie MingJue mention the incident of his sect again, hatred sprouted within him. The hatred was directed at not only everyone who was seated in this room, but also Wei WuXian.’

Although JC does know, deep down that WWX is not responsible for Lotus Pier (as stated in Ch.59), by this point his resentment has overgrown whatever love he had for him, and from this point on, he refuses to speak up for him, despite having the opportunity to do so. I think, there’s a reason the arc covering the fall of LP is called poisons - this was a turning point for JC, his relationship with WWX could not be the same again.

‘“[Lan Xichen,] I have heard of Wen Qing’s name a few of times. I do not remember her having participated in any of the Sunshot Campaign’s crimes.”

Nie MingJue, “But she’s never stopped them either.”

Lan XiChen, “Wen Qing was one of Wen RuoHan’s most trusted people. How could she have stopped them?”

Nie MingJue spoke coldly, “If she responded with only silence and not opposition when the Wen Sect was causing mayhem, it’s the same as indifference. She shouldn’t have been so disillusioned as to hope that she could be treated with respect when the Wen Sect was doing evil and be unwilling to suffer the consequences and pay the price when the Wen Sect was wiped out.”’

JC knows that it was WN who saved him after he got captured, and then WQ sheltered them, he is living proof that the Wens WWX is protecting were innocent. JC had two sect leaders here, essentially saying that if WN and WQ could be proven to have went against the main Wen sect during the war, then they might be forgiven. 

He could have spoken up, he chose not to.

Even LXC, who wasn’t even certain that WQ was innocent, did more to speak up than JC. He’s in a similar position of being a young, inexperienced sect leader, with Cloud Recesses having been burnt down and his father killed, but he still spoke up, so JC does not have that excuse.

JGS’s manipulation of JC during the scene in Ch.73 is very deliberate, in separating WWX from the Jiang Sect, it takes away any last lines of support WWX might have, and takes away the Jiang Sect’s power.

(After all, WWX could walk into a party he wasn’t invited to and demand they hand over their prisoners, and no one could stand up to him. A Jiang Sect with WWX supporting it is too powerful. That’s why JGS wanted them separated)

Being a disciple of the Jiang sect was the only official status WWX had, once that’s taken away from him, he loses what little entitlement to respect he had - people can accuse him of anything, attack him unprovoked.

JC, unfortunately, didn’t try to do anything more for WWX - he told him ‘Nobody would speak for them, and nobody would speak for you either!”’

But, LXC speaks up for them, and mianmian and LWJ speak up for WWX.

It’s not that nobody will - its that JC refuses to.

Back to WWX’s societal position, at this point, JC hasn’t let go of the possibility of WWX returning to LP - but that’s the only way in which he’ll allow WWX to be in his life - by his side, as his subordinate, as per the promise. 

When WWX made that promise, it was to calm JC down after one of YZY’s rants about how WWX will always be better than him. This is why he holds onto it so dearly, its his assurance that, at least in this one aspect, WWX can never surpass him, he’ll never be anything more than the son of a servant.

I think this little bit of dialogue between WWX and JC about JGY is really revealing in this aspect.

‘Wei WuXian, “Isn’t Jin GuangYao here now? Jin GuangYao seems so much better than him.”

Jiang Cheng finished wiping his sword. After he scrutinized it for a while, he finally put Sandu back into its sheath, “So what, if he’s better? No matter how much better he is, no matter how clever, he could only be a servant who greets the guests. That’s all there is to his life. He can’t compare with Jin ZiXuan.”’ (Ch.71)

I think this might be one of the most revealing pieces of dialogue regarding WWX’s and JC’s relationship. While WWX is in the Jiang Sect, JC has this assurance, that no matter what, WWX can never compare to JC, because JC was born with status and power that WWX can never surpass.

This is why its so unbearable that WWX broke the promise, why he finds it impossible to try to maintain a warm relationship with WWX after he leaves (after all, the defection was supposed to be for show, JC was never supposed to stab WWX).

JC did want him to come back, did want to have a relationship with him, but the trouble is, he’ll only accept him in this one specific way. 

When WWX deviates from this position where he would always be below JC, he declares WWX an enemy of the cultivation world.

Wei Wuxian didn’t have the freedom to act as he pleased, he died precisely because his position prevented him from doing so.

Every time he is criticised, the conversation always comes back around to ‘how dare the son of a servant be this arrogant?’

‘“Wei WuXian! You’re only the son of a servant—how dare you be so bold!!!”’

(Ch.70, during the confrontation on Phoenix Mountain)

During this confrontation, people are upset that WWX has hunted a third of the prey, but no one has any complaints that Nie Mingjue also hunted a third of the prey.

‘Jin GuangYao, “In reality, not only did Young Master Wei keep a third of the prey to himself, our eldest brother has eliminated over half of the fays and the monsters as well.”

Hearing this, Lan XiChen laughed, “That is how Brother is like, after all.”’

-

‘“It’s unbelievable that Jiang Cheng could tolerate this servant’s brazen actions for so long.”‘

(Ch.1, prologue)

‘”I’ve never seen the servant of any sect dare be so arrogant, so proud.”’

‘“Excuse my bluntness, but he’s the son of a servant. How could the son of a servant be so arrogant?” ‘

(Ch.73)

Notice how, as his reputation gets worse, he goes from ‘son of a servant’ to simply ‘servant’ - despite never actually having been a servant of the Jiang sect.

In chapter 73, WWX is accused of ‘killing indiscriminately,’ even though he hasn’t done what he is accused of, his position disallows him from defence.

Who actually kills indiscriminately?

It’s widely known that Jiang Cheng does. But, as a Sect Leader, he can do whatever he wants. 

‘Lan WangJi, though, was different from him. He wouldn’t even have to explain, and people would explain for him, such as how HanGuang-Jun had been deceived by the YiLing Patriarch.’

(Ch.50)

Why is Lan Wangji different? They were both strong cultivators from prominent sects, masters of the six arts.

The difference is, Lan Wangji was born with position, Wei Wuxian wasn’t.

When Lan Wangji runs off with the Yiling Laozu, people will make excuses for him.

For Wei Wuxian, he puts one toe out of line, and is shunned immediately, takes the blame for things he had no part in.

When WWX saved the Wens, Jiang Cheng refused to speak up in his defence, he declared WWX an enemy of the cultivation world, led the rest of the sects to believe that the Wens were an army.

He did these things in part because he felt WWX had forgotten his place - as JC’s subordinate, as a disciple of his sect, as someone who he thought of as indebted to him & his family.

The fact that Wei Wuxian’s position gives him so little freedom to do as he pleases, is precisely why he suffers such severe consequences.

But he puts his morals above keeping his position, thus is rewarded with a second life and a happy ending.

Wen Zhuliu put his loyalty to the Wen clan before his morals. That’s why he died.

Jin Guangyao cared more for ambition and revenge than morality. That’s why he died.